India’s Scientific Heritage: Measurement of time
By Suresh Soni

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In India, sages contemplated on this and perceived it. Describing the condition before the creation of the universe, the Naasadiya Sookta of the Rigveda says that there was no truth or untruth, neither atom nor leisure. Then what was there? There was neither death nor immortality, neither day nor night. At that time, there was an element with the power of pulsation.

Darkness was enveloped with the darkness before creation and there was an element which had the power or the strength of penance. It was first the power of the effect of desire that the equilibrium was shattered and the universe was created from the unexpressed state. And the journey of time also began. This is how the journey of the time moves on along with the universe.

Defining this, Sages have described it as ‘kalayati sarvaani bhootani’ that is one that drives the entire universe or creation. It is also said that this universe is made once and then, gets destroyed, this is not the end. The cycle of birth and death, creation and destruction goes on. The giant wheel of time goes on with its creation, position, change and destruction. The poets of India and the west have described the all-eclipsing form of time alike. Kshemendra, a renowned poet of India has expressed his views thus-

Aho kaalasamudrasya na - lakshyante atisantataah
Majjantontaranantasya - yugaantaah parvataa iva.

“There is no such interval as compression in the ocean of time; huge mountains like massive ages come to submerge into it.” Octavia Paz, the poet who won the Nobel Prize in 1990, has, in his poem ‘Into the Matter’, described the all engulfing nature of time in the following words-

A clock strikes the time
Now it’s time
It is not time now, not it is now
Now it is time to get rid of time
Now it is not time
It is time and not now
Time eats the now
Now it is time
Windows close
Walls closed doors close
The words go home
Now we are more alone…….

The shortest as well as the largest unit of time has been described in our country.

There is a reference to this in the Shrimad Bhagwad Mahapurana. King Pareekshit asks Sage Shukdev what is time? What are its minutest and greatest forms? The reply that the sage gives is amazing because in today’s modern age, we know that time is an abstract element. We know it because of the incidents that occur. Thousands of years ago, Sage Shukdev had said, “The changing of subjects is the form of time. The element of time expresses itself through it (change). It expresses itself through the unexpressed.”

Measurement of Time
The minutest part of time is the atom and the greatest is Brahma Age. Explaining it in detail, Sage Shuk gives its various measures-

2 paramaanu - 1 Anu
3 Anu - 1 trasrenu
3 trasrenu - 1 truti
100 truti - 1 vedh
3 vedh - 1 lav
3 lav - 1 nimesh
3 nimesh - 1 kshan (moment)
5 kshan - 1 kaashthaa
15 kaashthaa - 1 laghu
15 laghu - 1 naarikaa
2 naadikaa - 1muhoort
30 muhoort - 1 day-night
7 day-night - 1 week
2 weeks - 1 fortnight
2 fortnight - 1 month
2 months - 1 ritu (season)
3 ritus - 1 ayan
2 ayans - 1 year

According to the calculations of Sage Shuk, there are 3,28,05,00,000 paramaanu of time in a day and night and 86,400 seconds in a day and night. This means that in its minutest measure, one paramaanu of time is equal to 37968th part of a second.

In A 231 of the Moksh Parva in the Mahabharata, time has been calculated as under-

15 Nimesh - 1 kaashtha
30 kaashthaa - 1 kala
30 kala - 1 muhoort
30 muhoort - 1day and night

There is a slight difference between the two calculations. According to Sage Shuk, there are 450 kaashthaas in a moment and according to the Mahabharata, there are 900 kaashthaas in a moment. This implies the different methods of calculations.

These are the unites for ordinary time calculations. But to measure the age of the universe or the changes therein, bigger units will be required. That measurement unit is yug.

Kaliyug - 432,000 years
2 Kaliyug Dwaparyug - 864,000 years
3 Kaliyug Tretayug - 1296,000 years
4 Kaliyug Satyug - 1728,000 years
The four ages together make a Chaturyuge - 4320,000 years
71 Chaturyugis make a Manvantar - 306720,00 years
14 Manvantaras along with 15 Satyugs as a part of the dusk make up a kalp that is - 4320,000,000 years

One kalpa means one day of Brahma. One night of His is equally long. One Brahma lives for 100 years and when one Brahma dies, it is Lord Vishnu’s nimesh (blinking of the eye), and after Vishnu, the age of Rudra starts. He is himself a form of kaal and is, therefore, eternal. That is why time is said to be endless.

After reading this description of Sage Shukdev, a thought that comes to mind is that this description is fantastic imagination and an intellectual game. What is the significance of such things in today’s scientific age? But this is not fantastic imagination. It is related to astronomy. India’s calculations of time were made on the basis of a minute study of the speed and changes in the astronomical bodies which means solid scientific truth; whereas in the calculations of the Anno Domini era prevalent today, the only scientific thing is the fact that the year is based on the calculations of the time that the earth takes to revolve around the sun. Otherwise, there is no relation between the calculations of the months and days and astronomical speeds.